NY Daily News: Rush Limbaugh in Pill Probe -- Talk radio star had drug habit, maid sez

NY Daily News & Drudge ^ | October 1, 2003 | Tracy Connor

[lainie]

Talk-radio titan Rush Limbaugh is being investigated for allegedly buying thousands of addictive painkillers from a black-market drug ring.

The moralizing motormouth was turned in by his former housekeeper - who says she was Limbaugh's pill supplier for four years.

Wilma Cline, 42, says Limbaugh was hooked on the potent prescription drugs OxyContin, Lorcet and hydrocodone - and went through detox twice.

"There were times when I worried," Cline told the National Enquirer, which broke the story in an edition being published today. "All these pills are enough to kill an elephant - never mind a man."

Cline could not be reached for further comment yesterday, but her lawyer, Ed Shohat of Miami, said his client "stands behind the story."

The Daily News independently confirmed that Limbaugh is under investigation.

His lawyers, Jerry Fox and Dan Zachary, refused to comment on the accusations and said any "medical information" about him was private and not newsworthy.

They said Limbaugh - who has a top-rated syndicated radio show but resigned early today from a weekly ESPN football segment amid criticism of racial comments about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb - was traveling and had no comment.

The Palm Beach County state attorney's office, which is running the probe, said it could not confirm or deny the allegations.

Scoring in parking lot

Cline told the Enquirer she went to prosecutors with information about Limbaugh and others after four years of drug deals that included clandestine handoffs in a Denny's parking lot.

She said she wore a wire during her last two deliveries to the conservative commentator and gave the tapes to authorities.

She also gave the Enquirer a ledger documenting how many pills she claimed to have bought for him - 4,350 in one 47-day period - and E-mails she claimed Limbaugh sent her.

In one missive, Limbaugh pushed Cline to get more "little blues" - code for OxyContin, the powerful narcotic nicknamed hillbilly heroin, she said.

"You know how this stuff works ... the more you get used to, the more it takes," the May 2002 E-mail reads. "But I will try and cut down to help out."

The account Cline gave the Enquirer is that she became Limbaugh's drug connection in 1998, nine months after taking a housekeeping job at his Palm Beach mansion.

It started after her husband, David, hurt himself in a fall, and Limbaugh asked how he was.

"He asked me casually, 'Is he getting any pain medication?' I said, 'Yes - he's had surgery, and the doctor gave him hydro-codone 750,'" Cline said. "To my astonishment, he said, 'Can you spare a couple of them?'"

Husband's pills

Cline said she gave Limbaugh 10 pills the next day and agreed to give him 30 of her husband's pills each month. When the doctor stopped renewing the prescription in early 1999, Limbaugh allegedly went ballistic.

"His tone was nasty and bullying. He said, 'I don't care how or what you do, but you'd better - better! - get me some more,'" Cline said.

The housekeeper said she found a new supplier and arranged to hide Limbaugh's stashes under his mattress so his wife, Marta, wouldn't find them.

After several months, Limbaugh told her he was going to New York for detox and didn't need any more pills, Cline said.

But a month later, he said his left ear was hurting and asked her for hydrocodone, followed by an order for OxyContin.

Limbaugh, 52, suffered from autoimmune ear disease, a condition that left him deaf and had to be corrected with cochlear implant surgery two years ago.

Cline said she continued to make deliveries to Limbaugh even after she quit as his housekeeper in July 2001 - but he became increasingly paranoid, even patting her down for recording devices, she said.

In June 2002, Limbaugh told her he was going to New York for detox a second time.

After he returned, "I went to talk to him, and he cried a little bit," she said. "He told me that if it ever got out, he would be ruined."

She claimed that a lawyer for Limbaugh gave her a payoff - $80,000 he owed her, plus another $120,000 - and asked her to destroy the computer that contained the E-mail records.

Soon after, Cline and her husband retained Shohat and contacted prosecutors.

[Monty22]

When his voice got messed up.. Vicodin can do that to you too.

[GeronL]

100 pills a day? a dealer informing on a user? a multi-millionaire getting drugs from a housekeeper?

[Reagan Man]

>>>The House Clinic is the finest hearing clinic in the world and I can't imagine they'd jeopardize their reputation. Something isn't right here.

Absolutely right.

I don't think Rush would place his entire future on the line , with a chance of going to jail. This isn't right, anyway you cut it. The man is worth at least $200 million. No one with Rush`s open intellect and public stature could be that destructive. Hmmm.

[GeronL]

I am betting that anyone could sign up for a free e-mail address, RushLimbaugh213@yahoo.com or something

[Wild Irish Rogue]

" This may be a big part of the reason that Rush quit ESPN.

This could do his radio program in as well if radio stations decide to drop it.

Don't kid yourself, this is a serious hit."

The involvement of the State's Attorneys Office and the potential tape and e mail trail,plus a cooperating witness could be devastating .This isn't just an embarrassing gossip story- Rush appears to be in enormous legal trouble.He could survive the ESPN mess,but,I don't see how he gets past this.

[Lancey Howard]

I forget - - isn't David Kendall the lead attorney for the National Enquirer?

[pete anderson]

no one can eat that many pain killers and lose weight. If this were true Rush would look like Elvis.

[Lurkd Long Enough]

But on the airwaves he's the same sharp thinker he's always been?

I have to disagree. What he said on Sunday about McNabb wasn't the wisest comment he's ever made.

[Timesink]

The cover:

[lainie]

Somebody asked earlier in the thread, too. I don't know. If he was, is he still?

[CyberAnt]

Well .. since Rush lives in Florida, and that's where the 2000 election was such a mess .. I would surmise there were lots of people available to set up such a scheme. I smell the Clintons fingerprints all over this.

I knew the liberals were desperate but I think I underestimated them.

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

The anti-Rush media blitz that Drudge mentioned is a full-on anti-GOP blitz that's ensnaring Schwarzenegger tonight as well with the LA Times hit piece.

Don't forget the conveniently timed "leak" story against the President.

Why does this feel like a war?

[jd777]

Seriously, people describe George Bush as being a very heavy drinker...who got sober. And he's a better man for it. Certainly, the depth of character he has came from that experience. Why should it be different for Rush? If this is true (which it probably is because Rush could sue them out of existence if it wasn't. And they know that), Rush should cop to it. He should find God and clean house.

[GeronL]

It is very possible that this is a frame-up. I want to hear what Rush has to say about it before I'd believe it.

[Pro-Bush]

Can't you read? I said "if this is true".

Good grief!!

[Lurkd Long Enough]

I don't get the thing about being snared in a pill ring.

[Fledermaus]

Come on...no human could even get out of bed taking 97 of these type of pills a day.

And skidrow druggies are usually crack and heroin addicts.

[Hildy]

This beckons a question: Where the hell was she getting all these pills???

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

I thought the same thing -- see my post #31. Glad to know I'm not a subconscious pervert (well, not the only one, anyway).

[Thorondir]

What a crock of steaming cow dung....

It's time the DNC smear machine is confronted and eliminated once and for all.

You got that right. the filthy stinking commie libs will stop at nothing. Laws and decency mean absolutely nothing to them.

Liberalism so often wins because of its essentially satanic glamour, which appeals to and propagates all that is weak, broken and ugly in mankind:
If you are lazy, it offers a handout.
If you are stupid, it dumbs down your competition.
If you are worthless, it offers (false) self-esteem.
If you are confused, it says that certainty is the REAL confusion.
If you are evil, it offers a denial of guilt.
If you are a liar, it offers a denial of the existence of truth.
If you are a homosexual, it calls your sickness normal and healthy.
If you are a pornographer, it calls your filthy exploitation freedom of speech.
If you are a slave to sin, it names your shackles, FREEDOM.
If you are a coward, it offers its own false security.



Liberalism must be crushed!
The idea is catching on.